OptionsDisable Get Free Shots
Bad Company
Just another WordPress.com weblog
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
« The great Bidz.com jewelry scamUSALocksmiths.com - Worst of the worst
By sparrowshead
USALocksmiths.com manages to combine good old-fashioned scamming with threatening-behavior and taking advantage of single women trapped outside their apartments. There are early-hints that the pricing isn’t exactly transparent, as shown by their online voucher:
This company will likely be the first recommendation when you call 1800-FREE-411. One of their representatives will then tell you three lies, all making you feel like you’re dealing with a professional company while setting you up for a massive amount of scamming:
A 30-minute arrival guarantee, which will turn into a couple of hours. By the time the guy arrives and gives you an outrageous bill, you haven’t much choice since you’ve already spent so long outside.
A $55 call-out fee, and a time-based charge, which is a total fabrication. Our investigations indicate that nobody pays less that $170, the average time to open a door is about 10 minutes, which works out at about $1020 per hour.
The ability to pay by credit card (and Paypal, according to their website), when in fact they will only take cash. The reason is to avoid chargebacks, or any type of recourse, once you realize you’ve been scammed. Check out the “waiver of rights” they force people to sign: “Customer is satisfied and has no complaints, and ALL charges are undisputable”.
A personal story.
One of our readers recalls her story. Locked out of her San Francisco apartment, she called 1800-FREE-411 for a locksmith, and USALocksmiths.com arrived two hours later, having previously pledged arrival within 30 minutes. Our reader doesn’t live in the safest of areas, so was happy when the locksmith arrived. He looked at her lock (and most likely at her Coach purse too) and decided arbitrarily it would cost $215. When she protested, he started packing up to leave. Desperately, she agreed, and he opened her front door in less than 60 seconds. When she offered him her credit card, he refused, entered the apartment and demanded cash. He then refused to leave until she signed the waiver, and when she tried to complain the next day, the service representative said they “didn’t deal with complaints since she’d signed the form”.
Another victim in a similar set of circumstances sent us this invoice:
Apparently, it costs $135 for “lock out itlbwr shlouge khubset 6-pines key is upside”. This client said she’d had such a bad feeling from the experience that she’d since had all her locks changed, although this time she was able to research a reputable firm on the Internet. Reviews on consumer websites show a pattern of scamming, price gouging, abusive behavior and taking advantage of people in difficult situations:
“DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT USE THEM! Anything that says A-24 Hour Locksmith, Dependable Locks, or something to that extent. If you call and they say “It’s $39 plus $15 for each lock opened” HANG UP! This company is the BIGGEST SCAM out there. They will come and then hand you a bill for $149. They are doing this ALL over the country and San Mateo County is even suing them! Don’t CALL THEM! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!” (Yelp)
“Complete ripoff, I get an estimate for $450 to put a new doorknob on and adjust the top lock. A little high, but whatever, just finish it up. A half hour later the job is done and the guy hands me a bill for almost $700!! I ‘forgot’ about taxes, the service call, and, of course, labor!!” (Yelp)
“The whole thing was very shady and strange. The technician arrived in a private vehicle, not one bearing a business name. My keys were in my car, so instead of using a jimmy bar, he slid two little air bags between the door and the jamb and pumped them up so that he could pull the lock on the door. While he was doing that I asked him if there was a chance that that would damage the car and he just said, “Of course.” So when he shut the door again, the door was clearly bent, which I pointed out.” (Complaints Board)
“The customer service representative, Richard Lawson, told us that he would not have anybody come out and would not refund us any portion of the cost, and that he decided what the “All work is guaranteed for 90 days” and to him it just meant that if the locks didn’t function, they would repair them. He said he could interpret the guarantee however he wanted because it was his guarantee. He refused to take off the locks and refund us any of our money.” (Complaints Board)
The Verdict
We called their 1800 number to find out the cost of a fictitious lockout in the same neighborhood as our reader who complained about their service - we were told “about $70″. When we said we’d heard of much higher numbers, they claimed that lockouts “never exceeded $100″. They also repeated the claim that all credit cards were accepted - feel free to call them yourself on 800-721-5131 to verify.
You don’t have to look very far on the Internet to find not only endless complaints about this company, but class-action lawsuits, actions from attorney generals and general misery all around. Clearly, never use this bad company, but take the time now to find out from your insurance who they recommend so if you ever lock yourself out, you can call a reputable agent rather than bunch of lying, threatening, scamming thieves.
Just for the fact they leave vunerable women in danger, and then press them for cash payment and use threatening behavior, USALocksmiths.com gets 100% Bad Company rating.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
And then I found five dollars…
The Price of a Noise
Why Do Women Endure High Heels?
Tags: bad company, usalocksmiths.com, usalocksmith.com, locksmiths, lock out, consumer complaints, 800-721-5131, lock replacement, unlock, scam companies, scammers, illegal behavior, bad service, price gouging, billing fraud, Locksmith, USA Locksmith, usalocksmith, locks, lock, deadbolt, safe, safes, keyless entry, electronic lock, installation
This entry was posted on November 24, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
Name (required)
Mail (will not be published) (required)
Website
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). |
108 days ago by Leland [